Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) devices, such as disk drives and Flash drives, typically communicate with a host using the parallel ATA (PATA) or serial ATA (SATA) protocol. With both protocols, it may be desirable for the host to communicate with the ATA device while the device is in the middle of processing a current data access command, such as a read command. For example, the host may transmit a large read command to the ATA device which requires the ATA device to transmit the requested data in multiple blocks (e.g., 8k blocks). While receiving the blocks of data, it may be desirable for the host to communicate with the ATA device without having to abort the current read command. For example, if the host detects a threat to the ATA device, such as a free fall condition, it would be desirable for the host to command the ATA device to take appropriate protective action (e.g., park the heads in a disk drive) until the threat has passed. Once the threat has passed, it would be desirable for the host to command the ATA device to continue processing the current data access command (e.g., continue transmitting data of a current read command).